Australian Outlook

This week's shock news about meetings between senior Trump campaign members and a Russian lawyer linked to Putin is likely to disrupt the White House further. The silver lining may be that steadier hands are left to guide US foreign...

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has flown back to the US from the Persian Gulf after the most concerted effort yet to resolve the Saudi-Qatar dispute. He says he is optimistic, but a closer look at the background to the crisis suggests...

In what the United Nations has called the worst humanitarian crisis since the World War II, more than 16 million people in East Africa face the prospect of starvation as a result of conflict, political apathy and drought. These crises are doomed...

Recent international public opinion polls show that US global image has taken a hit since President Donald Trump assumed office. Some of the starkest decline in support has been recorded in traditional Western European allies. However, the ‘new’...

Expectations of the Hamburg G20 were not high, but the summit seems to have achieved even less than anticipated and, for the first time ever, the communiqué was not unanimous. However, if any country came away a winner from the weekend's...

Following the G20 summit, the US and Russia announced a ceasefire agreement in southern Syria, the result of months of closed-door negotiations. This agreement comes just as the UN begins its seventh attempt to broker a peace deal, but what does...

The end of RAMSI signifies a new phase in the Solomon Islands' post-conflict journey, one in which reconciliation and development remain key challenges. But after 14 years, Solomon Islanders are sceptical about the country's capacity to continue...

Russia’s aggression against Georgia and Ukraine as well as its reluctance to resolve the frozen conflicts in the region demonstrate that Eastern Europe is again a contested geopolitical sphere between Russia and the European Union. President...

It is a little over a year since the UN Security Council took action to combat sexual abuse by UN peacekeepers. Resolution 2272 offered the first disciplinary mechanism for addressing sexual misconduct, but did it go far enough?
In March...

Australia and the United States continue to strengthen their cybersecurity relationship through initiatives such as the recent Australia-US Cyber Dialogue. However, the Trump administration’s cyber policy gaps and the US president's strained...